For 60 years, I’ve watched this great nation be bled out by lawmakers. Most of them are controlled by the oil and money group.

The reason we have so much trouble these days is they have bled out everything. This legal-rights thing doesn’t work for honest citizens. It just works for lawyers, bankers, oil kings and corporate theft. The Affordable Care Act is part of it.

Sixty years ago, all I saw was aspirin. Nowadays, we need a pill for everything. Back then we all worked together for the good of mankind. Today we dare not cross the fence for fear of a lawsuit.

All of these wars we see these days are for profit. They control everything now.

William Leroy Elwood

Osceola, Mo.Voting guidelines

Below are some election choices:

• Don’t vote for a party — either one.

• Vote based on a candidate’s record, not promises.

• If you can’t decide based on the above, vote for a new person whose views are different from the incumbent’s.

Sound crazy? Think about it.

Thomas A. Janes

Lee’s SummitThrift store shopping

I am a single working mom. I work full time.

I shop at thrift stores for clothes for myself and my daughter. I also buy items that I can resell on eBay for extra money.

I have found that some people work at these stores as a way to locate inventory for their own eBay enterprises. You really can’t beat it. They get to price it and turn around and buy it before it even hits the floor.

So if anything of value or something new does come in the door, there is very little chance of finding it on the floor of a thrift shop.

I have spoken to managers of shops about this. One manager told me that she had already taken all the good jewelry to a pawn shop and put the money in the register.

Karen Dodson

Oak GroveRights of the unborn

Congratulations on an outstanding, well-written and truthful Midwest Voices column about the Constitution and abortion (12-7, Commentary, “Unborn and constitutional rights”). A baby is a person from the moment of conception, regardless of what the liberal world wants us to think.

Only prayer can eliminate this killing of thousands every year. Pray each day that the almighty Father softens those hearts that are considering abortion and that they come to know that each person regardless of size is a new creation with all of the rights this world affords.

Tim Beach

Kansas CityRepublican hypocrisy

Republicans who have tried so hard to repeal and to sabotage the Affordable Care Act have been crying crocodile tears because the website problems slowed its implementation. Besides voting more than 40 times to repeal the law, they delayed the confirmation of an administrator for the Centers for Medicare Medicaid.

Many Republican-controlled states, including Kansas and Missouri, refused to set up state exchanges, making the demand on the federal website a lot larger than expected. Republicans restricted funding for the agencies in charge of implementing the Affordable Care Act, creating more work for Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius and others who had to scramble for funds to pay for the rollout of the program.

Then there are the Republicans’ myths and outright lies that the government has been forced to waste time refuting.

So Republicans should spare us the pretense that they care about sick people.

I can’t stand their hypocrisy.

Janice Grebe

Roeland ParkHealth law benefits

After all the years of talking about the Affordable Care Act, the lawsuits, the news reports and the U.S. Supreme Court decision, I am appalled when I hear that a good number of U.S. citizens don’t know that it’s the law of the land.

One reason is that the left has allowed the extreme right wing of the Republican Party, who want to see the destruction of our federal government, to get away with lying to the public about a program that will benefit all the people in this country.

I, for one, am looking forward to going to the emergency room, if the need arises, and finding people there who actually need emergency care and not those who use emergency-room doctors as their primary-care physicians because they can’t afford insurance.

Kevin Fewell

Kansas CitySad sports call

Sporting Kansas City wins the Major League Soccer championship, and the team isn’t on the front page of the sports section on Dec. 8? Instead, we see the Missouri Tigers losing to Auburn.

What a disappointment for some readers.

Sue Malinee

LeawoodDay to remember

Local Pearl Harbor survivors Edmund Russell of Lenexa, Dorwin Lamkin of Mission and Jack Carson of Overland Park thank Sporting Kansas City for its hospitality at the MLS Cup game, held on the 72nd anniversary of the Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor that led to U.S. involvement in World War II.

When Sporting KC honored the three veterans in a field ceremony before the championship game, the sellout crowd roared its approval. They were then able to enjoy the game in the warmth of a VIP suite, and along the way many fans and Sporting KC staff members thanked the vets for their service.

Special thanks go to Chris Wyche, executive vice president with Sporting KC, for inviting the survivors and making all the arrangements, including presenting them with commemorative coins. Additional thanks go to David Ficklin, vice president with Sporting KC, for escorting the survivors and ensuring that they had everything they needed or wanted.

When I took Dorwin Lamkin home, he said, “This was the best ever, and a day I’ll always remember.”

Susan Pepperdine

FairwayVulnerable turning

Right now, almost every driver in Kansas City does the same routine when taking an unprotected left turn. The driver inches out into the intersection and waits to complete his turn.

However, when a driver is in the intersection and the light turns from yellow to red, he cannot simply reverse his car. He must complete the turn after the remaining cars exit the intersection but before the cars on the perpendicular side begin to accelerate.

However, the problem with the law is that if a car on the opposite side of the intersection runs the red light, the driver taking the turn is at fault — no matter how long the light is red.

Andrew Bryde

Kansas CityMandela tribute

In the many tributes to Nelson Mandela, please consider this one: “Nelson Mandela — humanity as it was meant to be.”

Temp Sparkman

Kansas CityObamacare imposed

I’m most happy to say, “I told you so,” about the Obama administration’s pitiful attempt to impose government control of the health-care business.

During a steady stream of complaints about dysfunctional websites on which to purchase insurance, there has been no mention of how those who are not online or cannot afford to be online can obtain this coverage. While the Internal Revenue Service lurks patiently in the wings to “handle” your insurance purchase (and fine you if you don’t buy it), an intransigent administration refuses to delay the imposition of this burden for a year in order to adjust its many inconsistencies.

We were also treated to a sample of the lengths that the Obama minions were prepared to go against any opposition to their socialist agenda.

William H. Finnegan

IndependenceKudos on big catch

Huzzahs for Mark Clemishire, hero fly fisherman who returned his 31-inch long, 22-inch girth rainbow trout alive to Lake Taneycomo after photos and measurements recently (12-6, B9, “Outdoors digest”). A trout this big (calculated over 20 pounds) you do not eat.

You mount it, release it or sell it to a sporting goods vendor. I am glad Mark made the most sportsmanlike choice.